A six-way latch bolt assembly is a latch bolt assembly that is adjustable to a 2⅜ inches and a 2¾ inches backset, and that can be utilized in a square corner mortised door, a round corner mortised door and a non-mortised door. A square corner mortised door means a door adapted to receive a square corner faceplate. A round corner mortised door means a door adapted to receive a round corner faceplate.
Traditionally, a door latch bolt assembly would include a door passage latch bolt assembly, a door privacy latch bolt assembly and a door entry latch bolt assembly. For purposes of this invention a door latch bolt assembly will also include a door dead latch bolt assembly. Virtually every hinged door in a home or commercial building has a door latch bolt assembly. Exterior doors are normally locked with an entry latch bolt assembly, and/or a dead latch bolt assembly. Interior doors are normally shut with a passage latch bolt assembly or a privacy latch bolt assembly. In the door latch bolt assembly industry, it is a common practice to offer one series of latch bolt assemblies for mortised doors (doors mortised on the outer edge or side for a frontplate and backplate) and a separate series of latch bolt assemblies, i.e. drive-in latch bolt assemblies, for non-mortised doors (doors not mortised on the outer edge or side for a frontplate and backplate). Some door latch bolt assemblies have a single plate, the frontplate, rather than both a backplate and frontplate.
Doors, both mortised doors and non-mortised doors, have two large intersecting bores on the latch side of the door, the side opposite the hinge side of a door where the door is supported by door hinges, to receive the door latch bolt assembly. One bore, the latch bore, extends from the exterior side, i.e., the edge, of the latch side of the door into the door to intersect the large face bore, which extends from the front face to the back face of the door. The face bore is normally around 2⅛ inches in diameter. The latch bore is either about ⅞ or about 1 inch in diameter. Some door latch bolt assemblies will only fit in a 1-inch diameter latch bore. Other door latch bolt assemblies will fit in either a ⅞-inch or 1-inch latch bore.
The outer edge or the latch side of a mortised door normally has a large rectangular faceplate with square or round corners that are received in a mortised cut in the edge of the door. The faceplate may be secured to a backplate which is affixed to the latch bolt assembly. The backplate is normally integral with the door latch bolt assembly. Two screw holes extend through the faceplate, and the backplate when present. The faceplate and backplate are screwed into the mortise cut on the edge of the latch side of the door with wood screws extending through the two screw holes. The faceplate and backplate secure the latch bolt assembly into the door and support the latch bolt assembly in the latch bore. In other words, the faceplate/backplate support a small latch bolt assembly in a 1-inch diameter latch bore. If a round faceplate is provided, drive-in sleeves are usually provided to bridge the space between the cylindrical casing of the assembly and the wall of the 1-inch latch bore. Sometimes the faceplate is integral with the sleeve.
Ideally, a latch bolt assembly would be usable on the mortised doors and non-mortised doors. This would simplify manufacturing, inventorying, reordering, and save on retail shelf space. Unfortunately the integral faceplate, and backplate if present, of the mortised type latch bolt assembly for the mortised door precludes the use of such latch bolt assembly on non-mortised doors, and the lack of a faceplate or backplate on the drive-in latch bolt assembly for non-mortised doors precludes the use of the drive-in door latch bolt assembly on mortised doors for esthetic and other reasons. Thus two separate latch bolt assemblies are required-one for mortised doors and one for non-mortised doors.
Some non-mortised doors have a ⅞-inch latch bore and others have a 1-inch latch bore. A latch bolt assembly with a sleeve is used in a one-inch (diameter) latch bore when there is no backplate to support the assembly in the bore. The one-inch latch bore supports the cylindrical casing of the latch bolt assembly in conjunction with a sleeve. The sleeve usually surrounds the cylindrical casing of the latch bolt assembly. Most doors today are drilled with a one-inch latch bore.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a door latch bolt assembly, including an entry latch bolt assembly, a passage latch bolt assembly, a privacy latch bolt assembly and a dead latch bolt assembly, that can be fitted with a faceplate and backplate to provide a mortised type door latch bolt assembly for mortised doors, and that can be fitted with the round faceplate and sleeve or collar to provide a drive-in door latch bolt assembly for non-mortised doors.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a drive-in door latch bolt assembly for non-mortised doors that can be rotated after installation in the latch bore to align the latch bolt or dead bolt parallel with the door faces after insertion of the latch bolt assembly in the latch bore. This insures that the bolt operating mechanism is perpendicular to the latch operating spindle and the bolt flat[s] are parallel to the flat sides of the strike or strike plate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a door latch bolt assembly that can be used interchangeably on non-mortised doors and mortised type doors.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a door latch bolt assembly that can be used interchangeably on mortised doors or non-mortised doors with a one-inch latch bore.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a passage latch bolt assembly, privacy latch bolt assembly and a dead latch bolt assembly that can be used interchangeably in a one-inch latch bore with a faceplate/backplate or round faceplate and sleeve.